Editorial: The Lorax who once spoke for trees, now hawking SUV’s

We all know the Lorax who spoke for the trees, for the trees had no tongues, But I’m asking myself at the top of my lungs,What’s that… *thing*?!That horrible thing that I see!What’s that thing that’s been wearing his skin on TV?!

The Lorax, the new hit movie that everyone is talking about, but where is the original message that the Lorax once famously boasted, “I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues “for now the Lorax is merely speaking for Mazda in what is merely a big market ploy.

“Remember me from the days when the world didn’t stink?Well, come see my movie,” it says with a wink.There it prances and pratfalls, and all laugh along,And all leave the theater like nothing is wrong,

And they smile and quote lines as they climb in their carsAnd drive away under the smog-smuggered stars.Then at home, on the TV, they see its new adFor a Mazda that’s only a little less badAbout belching up clouds full of poisonous smokeAnd destroying the planet for air-breathing folk.

Mazda one of the motor companies who are trying to lead the new ‘green’ movement and are using the Lorax, a character who was once bathed in nostalgia and environmentalism as a spear head for there new Read Across America campaign where the fluffy character rides around in a “truffula tree approved” Mazda offering kids prizes if their parents come to test drive their new car.

“Unless someone like you drives one straight off the lot,Nothing’s going to get better; it’s not.”And the misplaced nostalgia o’erpowers all senseAnd some think themselves part of the planet’s defenseFor buying a car the good Doctor would likeAnd buying the movie for their little tyke.

At 35 MPG the Mazda CX-5 could be toted as the most fuel efficient SUV in America but to have this, or any car marketed to elementary age students as a ploy to boast the companies profits is outlandish and to use a character who was once so pure as the Lorax is even more despicable.

The majority see the extent of the lieBut defeated and cynical let the world die.And the Hollywood studios search with a suretyFor the next decent thing they can rob of its purity

Outside of one school hundreds of kids filed past the two Mazda vehicles on display.

Some reached out to touch the cars. A few kneeled to have their photographs taken. Others erupted into a spontaneous chant. “Lorax car, Lorax car, Lorax car!” they said,

One of their classmates quietly objected.

“The Lorax doesn’t drive a car,”

And squeeze just a little more blood from the stone,No matter whose coffin is muffling a groan,While the clattering engines keep smoking onAs they will till the truffula trees are all gone.